Master Detective

The Life and Crimes of Ellis Parker, America's Real-life Sherlock Holmes

Ellis Parker, a detective known the world over in the early 1900s as the American Sherlock Holmes, was a profiler before the word was ever coined. Master Detective provides a complete picture of the man and the circumstances surrounding his tragic fall. of photos.

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This case has fascinated me for so long that I do not remember when I first heard about it. It has the largest cast of strange characters and coincidences. Speculation on who did what and how it happened will never be clear to even the most diligent student. And then to find someone like Ellis Parker as one of the people who genuinely wanted to solve the crime is stunning. Parker was labeled by the press as the American Sherlock Holmes and had solved so many crimes by using his noggin that people came to trust in his abilities to solve the most difficult cases. And the one thing that Parker prided himself on was that he never resorted to the rough tactics that other police forces used on a regular basis - the infamous third degree. However he soon found a suspect in the Lindbergh Kidnapping that he just knew had to be the right man if he could only get him to confess. Meanwhile the crime of kidnapping had turned to murder when they found the body of the baby. A law was passed to make kidnapping a federal offense. This was the law that Parker would be charged with when his suspect was subjected to supposed cruelty while questioning. Personally I don''t believe that Parker even knew that the thugs he hired to watch the suspect were beating the man. Parker''s fate was to be the one to pay the highest price and bring about the demise of his famed career. How it all ends is frustrating and shocking. A fascinating story that will haunt me I am sure.